Yamaha SBG1200

I am SO pleased i have found others who have this guitar !!! Iv had this guitar for six years and have searched all over the web for the SBG1200 and found nothing until tonight yippee !!!! I knew it was an old 80's guitar, i got mine second hand for #400, the guy in the shop said it was worth over a #1000 new ( could someone confirm this ).Im sure i seen the guitarist from 'blondie' use this guitar at a gig ( on TV ).
the features for this guitar see the reviews the guys in the last reviews put.
The colour ( of my guitar ) is a beautiful chocolate from the outside to an ornage sunset in the middle.
Lots of optians on this guitar with the push-pots and 3-way slector switch, i put a seymour duncan on the neck for a really nice FAT sound. With the selector on the neck pickup alone and put through my 'CRUNCH' channell on my Marshall TSL 100 sounds the NUTZ by the way , when turned upto 5 (TSL100 is a LOUD amp)..... words escape me.

the first time i saw and heard this guitar i knew it HAD to be mine , and after some persuading my mum ( i was 16 ) a few days later there it was sitting next to my bed :)
Through my Marshall, crunch + lead overdrive it sounds like im in guitar heaven and the clean channell is crisp and clear.
I own a fender telecaster deluxe and find that some songs it dosnt suit very well, usually songs with really heavy overdriven choruses in them and the yamaha just "ROCKS" it really drives all those wonderful guitar harmonics.fantastic.
i always like to dip my toe in a little jazz, and i find the seymour duncan neck pickup is great for jazz nice deep FAT sound , sweet an mellow.I think the bridge pickup is great for that 60's tone only if the bass,middle,treble,presence controls on my TSL 100 are setup right though, i found out that through mucking around one day but i dont really play 60's stuff.I reckon this guitar sounds BETTER THAN A GIBSON. Especially with that seymour duncan on the neck ( one of the best things i ever done ).

The guitar was 2nd hand and the guy that handed it in looked after it very well.
I didnt have to touch the action, like i said earlier i got rid of the old neck pickup in exchange for a really fat sounding seymour duncan.

This guitar was superbly made.
it is a very rugged guitar , i must say some gigs i go a bit mental and have dropped it or bashed into walls or drum kits but only bears one dent in the back of the neck to which i have no idea where it came from.
This guitar will stay with me to the end, and prbably could last longer than me but im going to have my guitars burned when i die.

i had someone else put the pickup in for me, thats it. The guitar is a beast and dont need any more help.

I LOVE this guitar with all my heart, never wanted anything else except my telecaster for that "telecaster sound" that suits some of my songs.And through my Marshall TSL 100 they both sound awesome !!
I use my Yamaha for some heavy songs ( usally quiet verse - loud chorus ).
If i lost this guitar i would be heartbroken, because SBG1200's are hard to find these days as well as this guitar being my first guitar.
But i would save up for a SBG2000 ASAP.

Made in Japan early to mid 80's. Bat wing double cutaway coupled with a Les Paul style.Set neck black with white binding and gold hardware. Humbuckers with coil splitters. Fat neck. Case says Nippon Gaiki. I am giving a 9 because of coil splitters.

This is one of the best sounding guitars I have ever played. I play through a Rivera r-30(with Weber Blue Dog) and Marshall JCM 900(modded); sustain is infinite ; clean tones are rich and distinct. You can get Jazz tones to Metal crunch to Fusion style lead tones. This thing pistol wips my PRS custom 24. Sad but true.

Bought used but was in great shape. Didn't make any adjustments yet. Case appears to be original and it sucks.

Built like a Lexus or Mercedes. This I am sure will prove to be a reliable gigging ax. Finish is glossy; gold plating is wearing alittle on the stop tail piece.

Tried finding out more info by calling up and giving them them the serial #; they were concerned and called me back right away but didn't seem to be able to provide too many specifics. If any one can help in that capacity please drop me line.

This thing is a winner hands down. I have have G&L,PRS, & Gibson - this is the all around winner. Would love to have an arsenal of these. I understand the key is to get one of these used is to find one made at the Nippon Gaiki factory in Japan.

Made in Japan early to mid 80's. Bat wing double cutaway coupled with a Les Paul style.Set neck black with white binding and gold hardware. Humbuckers with coil splitters. Fat neck. Case says Nippon Gaiki. I am giving a 9 because of coil splitters.

This is one of the best sounding guitars I have ever played. I play through a Rivera r-30(with Weber Blue Dog) and Marshall JCM 900(modded); sustain is infinite ; clean tones are rich and distinct. You can get Jazz tones to Metal crunch to Fusion style lead tones. This thing pistol wips my PRS custom 24. Sad but true.

Bought used but was in great shape. Didn't make any adjustments yet.

Built like a Lexus or Mercedes. This I am sure will prove to be a reliable gigging ax. Finish is glossy; gold plating is wearing alittle on the stop tail piece.

Tried finding out more info by calling up and giving them them the serial #; they were concerned and called me back right away but didn't seem to be able to provide too many specifics. If any one can help in that capacity please drop me line.

This guitar is the Yamaha SG series' answer to the Les Paul; it has a set neck (not a "through-body" like other SGs), a 2-piece or 3-piece (can't tell, matching is excellent) mahogany back and a 3-piece maple cap on top. The fingerboard is of ebony or rosewood, the neck is the baseball-bat-fat style (gotta love it!) and the frets are as big as they get. It doesn't have the usual-for-SG-series "tone block" under the Gibson-style bridge. Everything is Yamaha-brand (tuners, pickups, bridge, etc.). It has two humbuckers that can be tapped by means of push-push tone pots.

I play a lot of different music styles, and the only thing I can say this guitar CAN'T do is Surf (no, not even with the 'buckers tapped). Blues, Jazz, '70s Rock and Punk are very well within reach with this baby; '60s fuzz-rock is somewhat hard to play because the guitar sounds too fat for most fuzz boxes. The thing that surprised me the most with this beauty was the fact that relitavely no high end is lost when the volume is decreased -- without a bypass cap! The guitar is extremely quiet, excet the hum when the *hum* *buckers* (!!!) are tapped. I usually roll the tone a bit off to supress high end, and rarely (never) use the single coils.

When I got it, the pickups were a bit unbalanced, but the fine tuning on the bridge was perfect. The action is low, but not low enough that you don't have to make an effort to play! I might raise it a bit eventually. Furthermore, the strings buzz a bit, but not because of the frets; I got the guitar a week ago and haven't had the chance to change the strings and I think they're nines -- too small, thin sounding, buzzy. I'm probably gonna string it with tens (I usually use elevens, but I love to bend on this puppy). All in all the quality put into the manufacture of this guitar is way up there.

This thing is tougher than that steak you ate at your step-mother's. It's built like a tank, and weighs about the same... I haven't actually bothered to put it on a scale, but I think it weighs around nine or ten pounds. I'm pretty sure this thing is going to live longer than me, regardless of how it's beat and bashed.

Never dealt with them

I've been at the guitar game for 5 years and have wanted one of these for the past three. I own 2 other guitars: a '62 Silvertone amp-in-a-case and a cheap '80s metal-style guitar (Ooh, I bet you can guess how often that one is played!). I have three amps: 1970s master volume 100W Marshall, 1973 reverb+trem all tube 20W Traynor and a 1990s 40W Tubeworks (Ooh, I bet you can guess how often that one is played!). For pedals, I use a cheap-ass phaser, a germanium Fuzz Face and a Big Muff. I traded my old '60s hollow-body for this new baby here and I don't regret my trade one bit. To make a long story short, I had an all-purpose amp (Tubeworks) and an all-purpose guitar (metal-shredder), a Surf setup (Traynor+Silvertone) and a Rock setup (Marshall+H-B). Problem? As we all know, hollow-bodies tend to acoustically feedback at ANY playing level. Solution? The guitar discussed in this review.